"You were so small!" Adrien laughed, holding up a photo album in his hands as Marinette walked into her living room. A look of horror grew on her face as Marinette realized what Adrien was holding, recognizing the images of herself as a baby scattered across the pages.
"Where did you get that?" She asked, rapidly moving to lean over the sofa, her hand shooting out to grab the leather-bound book. Adrien, anticipating her action, moved it out of her reach with a grin.
"Your mother very kindly offered to show it to me while you helped your father in the kitchen," Adrien replied, nodding his head towards Sabine Dupain-Cheng, who was sitting in an armchair sipping a cup of tea.
"Oh. Uh, hi, Mama. I didn't see you there," Marinette said as she continued to try and reach over Adrien to grab the album, her knee leaning on the back of the sofa, pushing herself as far forward as she could without falling onto her boyfriend. Sabine raised an eyebrow at her daughter as she placed the teacup on the saucer she was holding, her lips quirked in a kind grin.
"Clearly," Sabine said, clearly biting back a laugh as her daughter inched closer and closer to the book Adrien was managing to keep out of her hands by scooting towards to the edge of his seat. "How are the macarons coming along, dear?"
"Oh, perfectly. They look and smell amazing. You know Papa, he couldn't get macarons wrong if he tried," Marinette said calmly, managing to keep her focus fully on the photos of her tiny self. "And why exactly did you decide to show Adrien my baby pictures?"
"Well, he looked bored, so I made him some tea," Sabine said, gesturing to an empty teacup on the table in front of them "And you were such a cute child, I thought that Adrien might enjoy looking through the album." Sabine took another sip of tea, watching as Adrien realised that he couldn't keep the book out of Marinette's outreached hand forever as he was swiftly running out of sofa to sit on. He decided to change his tactic, shutting the photo album and cradling it to his chest.
"How considerate of you," Marinette murmured so that only Adrien could hear her.
"What was that, Marinette?"
"Nothing, Mama!"
Adrien met Sabine's eye's, her face full of warmth as Marinette climbed onto the sofa next to him, and smiled. Marinette's gaze was still fixed on the album which Adrien was holding tightly, and he scooted to the side so that he could open it again without fear of her grabbing it.
"So what exactly have you seen?" Marinette asked Adrien, flicking her gaze to him as he turned to the last page he'd looked at. Marinette's tiny baby face grinned up at him as she wielded a wooden spoon which was nearly as big as her, Tom standing behind her with flour all over him and a look of shock on his face. Adrien turned to show Marinette where he'd got to, and immediately her face reddened.
Of course the book was open on the photo of her helping her father bake for the first time; most of the cake mix was on her four-year-old self rather than in the bowl. It was not a good picture, to say the least. Marinette's eyes widened in fear as she remembered the photos which came next.
"You know, after this the pictures are just really bad, all of them have Papa's thumb blurring the image, I'll just take that and we can watch a film-" Marinette leant over to grab the album, but Adrien moved it away too quickly for her to take it from him.
"Well, now I have to know what comes next," Adrien laughed, turning the page before Marinette could stop him, Sabine smiling quietly throughout the exchange. When Adrien saw the images spread on the page in front of me, both his eyes and grin widened as he turned back to look at Marinette.
"Oh my god. Marinette, that's amazing!"
"hnnnnnnnnnng."
"I didn't know you wanted to be a model," Adrien said with a chuckle, turning the book towards Marinette, who promptly shut her eyes and placed her face in the palms of her hands. Baby Marinette was striking various poses in the pictures, clearly wearing her mother's clothes and make up as the photos showed her attempts at modelling. She had a feather boa which was wrapped around her like lights on a Christmas tree. It was glorious.
"Oh yes, before she started designing, little Marinette desperately wanted to be on the catwalk," Sabine chimed in as Marinette curled into a ball. "I don't know where she found half of those old clothes, but I'd always walk in on her trying on some mad combination. She fell over in my heels more times than I could count!"
"Mama, please!" Marinette whimpered, causing Adrien to shuffle closer to her, placing an arm around her.
"Hey, come on, it's adorable! You're the cutest model I've ever seen - baby Marinette would have made it big!" Adrien said, squeezing Marinette's shoulder, not caring that Sabine was watching the pair of them. Before he could continue, however, Marinette jumped out of the seat, snatching the photo album out of Adrien's hands and fleeing from the room.
"Victory!" she cried as she ran, and Adrien and Sabine exchanged a bemused look as they heard her footsteps bound up the ladder to her room.
"Well, I think she outsmarted us there, Adrien," Sabine laughed, shaking her head at her daughter's antics. "You might want to follow her before she uses this opportunity to burn the album."
Adrien grinned, nodding at Marinette's mother. "We can't let that happen, can we?" he said. Adrien wasn't used to being so casual around parents, but something about Sabine was so comforting, so reassuring, that he felt at ease in her presence.
"Thank you for the tea, Mrs Dupain-Cheng," Adrien said politely as he stood up.
"Please, call me Sabine."
Adrien couldn't help but smile as Sabine grinned at him, and once again he nodded at her.
"O-okay. Thank you, Sabine!" Adrien gave her a little wave before quickly heading towards Marinette's room.
Sabine gave Adrien a nod as he passed, raising her cup to her lips to take the final sip of tea. Exhaling contentedly, she collected Adrien's cup along with hers and carried them to the kitchen, where Tom was cleaning up his baking tools. Setting the teacups on the counter, Sabine reached up to kiss her husband on the cheek.
A lot of her daughter's talents came from Tom, Sabine thought to herself; but she was glad to know that Marinette had inherited her mother's good taste in men.